2 Boston firefighters killed while battling nine-alarm fire

Firefighters place black bunting on the front of fire station Engine 33/Ladder 15, Thursday, March 27, 2014, in Boston. Engine 33/Ladder 15 was the station of fallen firefighters Lt. Edward Walsh and Michael Kennedy who lost their lives fighting a nine-alarm blaze in a four-story brownstone in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.

Residents who live on Beacon Street said they were grateful for the heroic actions firefighters took to save those who lived in and near the nine-alarm fire that broke out Wednesday afternoon, killing two firefighters.

"Had the firefighters not come in that 30-second window, who knows," Christi Villarreal said.

Villarreal said she was inside her apartment at 300 Beacon St., sharing a wall with the burning brownstone next door at 298 Beacon St. when the nine-alarm fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon.

"The firefighters came into our buildings and were knocking on my door and everybody above. I could hear them going upstairs, she said.

The firefighters heroics evacuating everyone in her building are not lost on Villarreal, she said.

"I could see people just coming down the ladder or down the stoop and the firefighters pulling everyone out," she said.

Residents said they saw firefighters after they successfully helped so many to safety, risking their own lives in the process.

"They had soot all over them," resident Pete Chapman said. "They were clearly emotional and a couple of them were having a very difficult time walking."

Villarreal publicly tweeted her thanks on Thursday to the brave firefighters she said she's indebted to."They are truly amazing and I did not know the definition of hero, honestly, until I witnessed this whole episode.

A fund has been set up in the firefighters' memory. Donations can sent to: